California became the first state to enshrine certain rights for transgender K-12 public school students when Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB1266 into law Monday.

Kids who identify with the opposite sex will now be allowed to compete on sports teams and use facilities, including restrooms, based on the gender they identify with, regardless of what their birth certificate says.

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Local transgender students said they were surprised and relieved by the new state law. Jordin Koronkowski is 14-years-old, lives in Santa Cruz, and is transgender.

"I'm a boy and that's what my gender tells me, but the sex downstairs is woman genitalia," Koronkowski said.

Simple things that most teenagers take for granted at school are a challenge, Koronkowski said.

"When I try to go in the boys bathroom everyone would say, ‘No, you're a girl,’ and when I tried to go in the girls bathroom everyone would say, ‘You're a boy.’ So basically, I couldn't go to the restroom all day at school," he said.

Jay, a San Lorenzo Valley Middle School transgender student, said the new law allows him to compete in the sports he loves.

"I haven't played sports ever. I couldn't get on any team because they're all gender based and sexed based. But now I can," Jay said.

Parent Ruth Davis strongly opposes AB1266. She said the law will be exploited by students and confuse teenagers about their own gender.

"There's no protection for a child with traditional values," Davis said. "All of a sudden they have to go to school and decide what they are. They have to re-decide. There is no protection at all, it does not make sense to me."

As for how schools are dealing with the news, the Central Coast's largest school district, Monterey Peninsula Unified, said it was anticipating this and already had a rough draft policy written. It'll seek board approval to finalize the draft this month.

Public schools are required to implement the new accommodations for transgender students by Jan. 1, 2013.

Brown signed the bill on Monday without comment. Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles, said the law "puts California at the forefront of leadership on transgender rights."

The Gay-Straight Alliance Network said two states, Massachusetts and Connecticut, have statewide policies granting the same protections, but California is the first to put them into statute and require them in all public school districts.